Directed by Maurice Pialat

Directed by Maurice Pialat

11 Episodes

“What I mean by realism goes beyond reality,” declared French master Maurice Pialat, whose at once raw and rigorous films capture all the intensity, vivid humanity, brutality, and tenderness of life itself. Born one hundred years ago this August, Pialat was a contemporary of the nouvelle vague, but always stood apart from the movement, pursuing an uncompromising personal vision that had more in common with his artistic forebear Jean Renoir. In masterpieces like WE WON’T GROW OLD TOGETHER, THE MOUTH AGAPE, À NOS AMOURS, and VAN GOGH, Pialat refined a hard-hitting, elliptical style in which searing emotional realism and cutting human truth are prized above all else. Though he may not be as well known internationally as many of his contemporaries, Pialat had an incalculable effect on a generation of post–New Wave directors like Catherine Breillat, Leos Carax, Philippe Garrel, and Arnaud Desplechin, who has said, “The filmmaker whose influence has been the strongest and most constant on the young French cinema isn’t Jean-Luc Godard but Maurice Pialat.”

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Directed by Maurice Pialat

11 Episodes

  • Directed by Maurice Pialat Teaser
    01:04
    Directed by Maurice Pialat Teaser
    Episode 1

    Directed by Maurice Pialat Teaser

    Episode 1

  • À nos amours
    1:39:39
    À nos amours
    Episode 2

    À nos amours

    Episode 2

    Directed by Maurice Pialat • 1983 • France
    Starring Sandrine Bonnaire, Evelyne Ker, Maurice Pialat

    With his raw style of filmmaking, Maurice Pialat has been called the John Cassavetes of French cinema, and the scorching À NOS AMOURS is one of his greatest achievements. In a revelatory film debut...

  • L’enfance nue
    1:23:09
    L’enfance nue
    Episode 3

    L’enfance nue

    Episode 3

    Directed by Maurice Pialat • 1968 • France
    Starring Michel Terrazon, Marie-Louise Thierry, René Thierry

    The singular French director Maurice Pialat puts his distinctive stamp on the lost-youth film with this devastating portrait of a damaged foster child. We watch as ten-year-old François (Miche...

  • We Won’t Grow Old Together
    1:46:24
    We Won’t Grow Old Together
    Episode 4

    We Won’t Grow Old Together

    Episode 4

    Directed by Maurice Pialat • 1972 • France
    Starring Marlène Jobert, Jean Yanne, Christine Fabréga

    An end-of-love story for the ages, Maurice Pialat’s masterpiece is a combustible portrait of a couple whose mutual desire tears them apart. A work of lacerating autobiography drawn from the director...

  • The Mouth Agape
    1:27:14
    The Mouth Agape
    Episode 5

    The Mouth Agape

    Episode 5

    Directed by Maurice Pialat • 1974 • France
    Starring Nathalie Baye, Hubert Deschamps, Philippe Léotard

    One of cinema’s greatest and most profound meditations on mortality, THE MOUTH AGAPE observes, with striking unsentimentality, the final days of a terminally ill woman (Monique Mélinand) as thos...

  • Graduate First
    1:25:05
    Graduate First
    Episode 6

    Graduate First

    Episode 6

    Directed by Maurice Pialat • 1978 • France
    Starring Sabine Haudepin, Philippe Marlaud, Annick Alane

    Maurice Pialat’s oft-overlooked chronicle of jaded adolescence unfolds in a small town in northern France where a group of teenagers stave off boredom and the looming responsibilities of adulthood...

  • Loulou
    1:45:36
    Loulou
    Episode 7

    Loulou

    Episode 7

    Directed by Maurice Pialat • 1980 • France
    Starring Isabelle Huppert, Gérard Depardieu, Guy Marchand

    A young Isabelle Huppert and Gérard Depardieu make for one of the most breathtaking screen couples in French-cinema history in this raw, sexy, messy tale of amour fou. Huppert is Nelly, a well-to...

  • Under the Sun of Satan
    1:38:00
    Under the Sun of Satan
    Episode 8

    Under the Sun of Satan

    Episode 8

    Directed by Maurice Pialat • 1987 • France
    Starring Gérard Depardieu, Sandrine Bonnaire, Maurice Pialat

    Winner of the Palme d’Or at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival—where its victory was greeted with more than a bit of controversy—Maurice Pialat’s searing adaptation of a novel by Georges Bernanos s...

  • Van Gogh
    2:39:10
    Van Gogh
    Episode 9

    Van Gogh

    Episode 9

    Directed by Maurice Pialat • 1991 • France
    Starring Jacques Dutronc, Alexandra London, Bernard Le Coq

    Maurice Pialat’s visually stunning penultimate work is an epic, masterful dramatization of the final months in the life of the troubled painter (played by musician Jacques Dutronc in a César-win...

  • Le garçu
    1:47:49
    Le garçu
    Episode 10

    Le garçu

    Episode 10

    Directed by Maurice Pialat • 1995 • France
    Starring Gérard Depardieu, Géraldine Pailhas, Antoine Pialat

    Maurice Pialat’s final film, this searing autobiographical drama continues his lacerating explorations of human relationships in all their messy, emotionally volatile complexity. Gérard (Gérar...

  • L’amour existe
    20:05
    L’amour existe
    Episode 11

    L’amour existe

    Episode 11

    Directed by Maurice Pialat • 1960 • France

    This contemplative short film, directed by Maurice Pialat in 1960, depicts life in the banlieues, or suburbs, of Paris and the dead-end existence of the youth residing there.

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